Almost every university student is aware of the joke that their entire existence is characterized by a general lack of sleep. It is, of course, dryly humorous because of how true it is. Whether from studying, CCAs, volunteering, religious commitments, work, or chores, many university students struggle to fit everything into a mere 24 hours. That’s not even mentioning time used for meals, commuting, and leisure. The first and easiest casualty, then, is sleep; after all, time spent sleeping is time that could otherwise have been spent on any number of urgent needs and wants. Sleep is wonderful, a luxury, and something we all wish for… but that’s all, or so we think. Sleep couldn’t be that important, compared to an additional hour spent studying or hustling… could it?
Well, not exactly. It’s time for us to bust some myths about sleep, and why seven hours of sleep is worth adhering to even in the face of other priorities.
Rival Priority 1: Studying
Obviously, sleeping more than needed when it is time to study — or worse, for class — is not a wise decision of one’s time. That said, insufficient sleep, and this means anything significantly below an average of seven hours of sleep per night, leads to slower learning processes and drastic decrease in memory capabilities. It gets worse for more complex cognitive tasks: significant decline in deductive reasoning, inference, and recognition of assumptions, while motor skills break down completely. Now, this is not the consequence of a total lack of sleep due to an all-nighter, but the result of clocking in an average of five hours of sleep!
In short, you would literally produce significantly poorer work and learn significantly less, with the additional two hours spent working or studying instead of sleeping. And if that’s not enough for you, consider this: according to the same study, sleep and GPA are positively correlated. The more sleep one gets, the higher their GPA. Moreover, later bedtimes were negatively correlated with GPA; the later one sleeps, the higher chance that their GPA would be adversely affected. Now, various possible confounding factors and omitted variable bias always looms ominously over any coverage of a scientific study. That said, it’s worth taking a look at the way you’ve organised your study schedule, and seeing if it can be shifted to allow you to get the sleep you need.
Rival Priority 2: CCA/Volunteering/Religious Commitments
There are various reasons why you might have committed to a CCA, to volunteering somewhere, or to a religious ministry and they can be completely valid reasons such as socialising or developing a skill!
That said, it’s worth remembering how poor sleep will affect your ability to realise these goals. In terms of the social aspect, a lack of sleep has been shown to adversely affect one’s social capacity and ability to enjoy each others’ company. It leads to poorer mental health, which hurts one’s capability to contribute even with the best of efforts, methods, and intentions, and makes it harder to enjoy yourself and find fulfillment. And as for physically active CCAs, the aforementioned breakdown in gross and fine motor skills impair your ability to train, perform, compete, or to make the most of your time there. And yes, the performance dip caused by a lack of sleep can undo months of hard training on the day of competition, as shown by a series of studies done by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
This might call for a reduction of these commitments, or at least scheduling them in such a way that you can complete them as well as your other work, and still have time for enough sleep.
Rival Priority 3: Hobbies and Partying
Look, it’s great to have fun. But as mentioned before, running too low on sleep heavily affects your mood and your social capacity. Running low on sleep has an overall negative effect, even when we derive enjoyment from our hobbies and time with friends. Hobbies are a great way to unwind and regulate stress, but spending too much time on late-night gaming or drinking can put you in a place of poorer mental health as time goes on.
Reducing leisure time is one possible solution, as are taking up more hobbies which don’t stretch on as late into the night, but another would be a reallocation of your time. Where might be a better place to put your leisure time such that you can get enough sleep to fully appreciate your hobbies and your friends?
Rival Priority 4: Work
Work is important and can be extremely demanding, especially in a fast-paced society such as Singapore. Work-life balance is a struggle, and it shouldn’t be downplayed. Yet, once again, sleep heavily affects workplace productivity. As covered before, motor skills, social capacity, and cognitive ability are all heavily affected by a lack of sleep, as are your mental health, emotions, and ability to deal with stress. All of these are important aspects of productivity at work, and your ability to sustain it over time.
How bad is it? Well, sleep deprivation is responsible for an annual loss of US$1,967 per worker in the United States. That leads to estimates of five to 15 billion dollars lost in productivity due to a lack of sleep.
However, this is something that may be out of the control of many workers. Sometimes, the demands of work get in the way of getting the rest that we need, even without leisure time or other commitments. Therefore, it’s worth having a chat with your superiors about how you can get a good sleep schedule in, both for your ability to produce for them and for your well-being. And it goes without saying that if you are an employer, we hope that you have come to understand the importance of sleep to both productivity and well-being.
Conclusion
Few people reading this would not already know the benefits and importance of sleep. However, many readers might not know the consequences of even minor sleep deprivation. Remember, the effects of sleep deprivation listed here weren’t from a mere three or four hours of sleep, let alone an all-nighter. The aforementioned effects are caused by sleeping any less than six hours of sleep a night. It’s essential to get at least six, preferably seven or more hours of sleep, for your health,your ability to perform, your safety, and your happiness.
But it is often incredibly hard to figure out how to get that sleep. Yet, this is something where everyone can do their part. Employers, managers, and teachers can be supportive by listening to employees and students regarding their workload, and by being sensitive to potential cases of overwork. As friends, we can help one another better plan our schedules and keep to them, so as to sort out our commitments and get the rest that we need, and find the time to enjoy each other’s company. Whether in work, school, or other commitments, we too can be sensitive to when someone needs a good rest, and see what’s the best way we can help them do so.
So close the curtains, fluff up your pillow, pull up your blanket, and get your seven hours of sleep. We’ll be here when it’s time to wake.